New House Republicans: Lavish fundraiser tonight

They’ve promised to shake up Washington, D.C., but freshmen Republican congressmen get feted Tuesday night with a capital ritual — a lavish fundraiser with $2,500 tickets and a $50,000 package including a “VIP Suite” at the W Hotel.

“WELCOME America’s New Majority and the 112th Congress,” says an invitation topped by House Speaker-designate John Boehner. The fundraiser, featuring country music star LeAnn Rimes, will benefit a dozen newly elected Republican House members.

The new Republican majority appears to be repeating a stumble made by Democrats when they took control of the House four years ago.

At that time, a $1,000 fundraiser by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – featuring Tony Bennett and surviving members of the Grateful Dead – “got some bad press,” Politico reported.

Good government groups reacted with a kind of gleeful outrage to the GOP’s pricey fundraiser.

“This is exactly what Americans are furious about, and should be: These new members of Congress should remember that they were elected to serve the public interest — not the interests of lobbyists who purchase $50,000 tickets,” said Common Cause President Bob Edgar.

(The $50,000 package includes a block of tickets and a ‘VIP suite’ at the W, Politico reported, in a piece written by News-Tribune alumnus Ken Vogel.)

David Donnelly, national campaigns director for Public Campaign Action Fund, argued: “The same hands that new Republican House members raise tomorrow to take their oath of office will be the ones sullied by the collection of PAC, lobbyist and special interest cash tonight.”

“Every member – new or incumbent – must distance themselves from this blatant play for special interest cash and get to work to change the way Washington works, not celebrate it.”

The principal sponsor of the Tuesday fundraiser is incoming Rep. Jeff Denham, R-California.

Denham is a former California state senator whose campaign billed him as “one of the best fundraisers in the California Legislature.”

The event has also drawn fire from the right.

A conservative blogger, Matt Lewis, criticized high ticket prices, and noted Rimes’s acknowledged extramarital affair and recent appearance dressed in a “Sexy Santa” costume with a gay men’s chorus in a Yuletide performance.